Remarks by the President of the General Assembly 

H.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock

at the annual plenary meeting on “use of the veto”

20 November 2025

[As delivered]

Excellencies,

 

The single most important mandate bestowed upon this institution is to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.

 

This is only fitting for an organization born of the ashes of conflict, by people entirely exhausted by not one, but two world wars in a single generation.

 

Yet far too often today, we see that the United Nations is unable to deliver on its most important mandate.

 

Its principal organ tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security, the Security Council, has far too often been deadlocked on the most devastating conflicts, as also discussed on Tuesday at the debate on the Security Council.

 

Inaction, or the use of the veto in the Council, means real people, watching in real time, may question the credibility and legitimacy of not only the Security Council, but of the UN in its entirety.

 

Indeed, the need for Security Council reform is the ‘poster child’ of the shortcomings of the larger multilateral system.

 

The ‘Veto Initiative’ was and is a response to this predicament.

 

It is a chance for this Assembly, all 193 Member States of it, to demonstrate to the wider world that the UN – even when facing a blockage in the Council – hears the desperate voices of those affected by these conflicts and is able to act.

 

An opportunity to show that we are working to alleviate their suffering, that we have not forgotten the promise of this institution, made to humanity in 1945: to save them, also today, 80-years later, from the scourge of war.

 

The Veto Initiative is our chance to demonstrate, even in these fragmented times, that multilateralism is alive; that cross-regional cooperation has, in fact, even been strengthened, with more debates within the General Assembly on peace and security matters.

 

We see this in the resolutions passed on topics vetoed in the Security Council, such as, most recently, with the New York Declaration, adopted by 142 Member States.

 

Today’s debate is an opportunity to discuss how we can further strengthen not only the Veto Initiative, but cross-regional cooperation and, by extension, trust in our institution.

 

Let us ask ourselves:

• Which other tools can be added to complement its use?
• Should the General Assembly build on the Veto Initiative with further measures to uphold peace and security?

• Should it take action and make recommendations to parties in conflict or to the Security Council itself if the Council is unwilling or unable to act?

 

These questions, raised in the last debates here in this institution but also in other settings, underline how important it is to reflect that we are not only being seen as one body but as a family together.

 

This has been reflected also in the Working Group on the Strengthening and Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly.

 

And when we speak of the Veto Initiative, we of course also have to reflect on, and discuss, the question of the veto itself in the framework of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform, as discussed in this Hall on Tuesday

 

Excellencies,

 

While it is unfortunate that we even have to use the Veto Initiative in the first place, as it is more often than not, an indication of the wider dilemma, we nonetheless should appreciate the opportunity that it avails us:

to step in when needed;

to hold ourselves and each other to account;

to demonstrate intent and take action;

to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.

 

I thank you.